Special Cup

The Special Cup is the final cup in Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, as well as the last of the Nitro cups since Mario Kart DS. In Mario Kart: Super Circuit is it the last of the "standard" courses with the Extra cups being unlocked after and Extra Special Cup being the final cup. In Super Mario Kart, the player may unlock it by winning all three cups in 100cc (though it will be unavailable for the 50cc class); in Mario Kart: Super Circuit it is available by winning the four previous cups, each by class; in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, it appears after the player finished first in the Star Cup in 100cc; from Mario Kart DS onwards, it is unlocked once the player claims a trophy in the Star Cup. It consists of long, challenging courses with lots of gimmicks and harder difficulties. It always ends with Rainbow Road as the game's climactic course. Starting in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Bowser's Castle is the penultimate course before Rainbow Road. The emblem of the Special Cup is currently a crown (seen to the right), although in Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart Super Circuit it is represented by the letter "S", the initial of "special." In Super Mario Kart it is a combination of the three emblems used for the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, and Star Cup respectively.

The Special Cup reappears in Mario Tennis Open. In this game it is called the Champions Cup. It is the last cup in the World Open tournament series. Players can unlock this cup when they clear the Banana Cup. When players clear this cup, their character earns a star rank, which boosts their stats and grants them access to the Star Open tournament series. The court played here is the grass, clay and hard courts in Mario Stadium.

Disregarding the combination of the three emblems used for the three previous cups in Super Mario Kart, the Special Cup is the only cup that does not use an item usable in the Mario Kart series as its emblem. Previously, the Leaf Cup and Flower Cup used emblems that were not available as Mario Kart items until Mario Kart 7 was released.

Excluding DLC cups in Mario Kart 8, the Special Cup is the only cup in the Mario Kart series to not have a Circuit/Raceway course.

Mario Kart 64 is the only game in the series that does not require the player to unlock the Special Cup in order for it to be playable.

Mario Kart 64's Special Cup is the only cup to have all of its tracks remade.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart Wii, and Mario Kart 8 are the only Special Cups to not have any of its tracks remade.

In the Chinese version of Mario Kart 64, the Special Cup is called the "iQue Cup", named after of the home console iQue Player, which is not available outside China.

If the player selects Grand Prix mode in Mario Kart Wii, if one looks closely, the Special Cup trophy from that game (excluding the part where the emblem is shown) can be seen.

Mario Kart 8's Special Cup has every course except Rainbow Road having something to do with Bowser while driving through the course. Cloudtop Cruise has a Bowser Airship the player navigates through, Bone-Dry Dunes has the player gliding into a giant Bowser shaped cave opening, made of bones. Bowser's Castle is all about Bowser himself.